Patient Messaging offers you the ability to contact a big group of your patients in one go.
First, you need to use the Patients Report to find the list of patients you want to contact en masse. There is a helpful web page on using the customisable patient report which will help you to do this.
Once you have created a custom patient report segment which you can use over and again, for the list of patients you want to contact, the 'Patient Messages' facility will allow you to send letters, emails or SMS messages.
Before following these steps, make sure to check out the Messaging setup web page.
Sending the Batch Message
There are four steps required to create, and send a message to the selected patients.
1. Choose the relevant segment from the Patient report.
This selects the list of patients you wish to send the message to from a previously created custom report.
Click on the messages icon, top right.
2. Select the required communication channel
Give the new message a name. You will be able to track the message so make each message name unique and easy to identify.
Now select the communication channel.
3. Choose the message template
These are your standard templates which can be created or edited from the Settings>Templates menu.
Select the message template you wish to use.
4. Review and send
Check your message is exactly what you need and send or save for later.
Sending and viewing the summary
Send message now will start the message creation and sending process. It may not complete immediately, depending on how many messages there are to send, so the process bar will indicate how far through the process the system has got.
Once the sending process has started, you will be shown a summary of how many messages have been processed to date and how many have failed. Selecting the Patients tab will show details of which patients have been contacted and which have failed.
Previously sent messages and the results can always be viewed when first entering the Messaging function, so you can review how successful previous message campaigns have been.
Save For Later
This option will allow you to keep all of the options previously selected and save the message as a draft to be sent at a later date.
Any draft messages can be viewed from the options at the top left of the Patient Messaging screen:
To send a draft message, select the draft message from the list and continue the process as above. Any of the previously selected options can be changed using the Edit Message option at the top right.
Message Limit
There is a limit to the number of messages you can send from the Patients report.
You may need to increase this limit.
To do this you need to have Level 4 (Administrator) permissions.
Go to Settings > Users > Edit > Security
Select a Maximum number of patients that can be contacted via the patients report at once.
Change the number to slightly more than you need for the Patient Messaging.